Shadow in the Sunset
by LilyIsAwesomerThanYou
Summary: Lily Evans thought she hated James Potter. He thought she did, too. But some things change... James/Lily
1. Chapter 1

**Just a little something I thought of when I couldn't sleep... If it sucks, I'll take it down.**

**Disclaimer - I do NOT own Harry Potter! It all belongs to JK Rowling.**

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><p>Shadow in the Sunset<p>

Chapter 1

"What's wrong?"

His question was greeted only with cold silence. She turned and began to walk away. He lunged out and grabbed her arm.

"Please! Lily, _please_, just tell me what's wrong." Desperation leaked into his voice. When she again refused to answer, he turned her around to face him and looked her straight in the eye. She averted her gaze, staring intently at a point somewhere past his shoulder.

"Tell me! Is it really so bad that you can't tell me what's wrong? What _happened_ to you?" Moving his hand up to her shoulder, he shook her. Firm so as to make his point but gentle enough that it didn't harm her.

It had started the week before. Lily had stopped being herself. She had become sarcastic and irritable. She was angry with everyone all the time. And instead of insulting him (like she always did), she began ignoring him completely. Wouldn't say a word to his face or his friends. So that left one question: what the hell had happened to Lily Evans?

"Nothing," she finally answered, punctuating her reply with a step back and a yank of her arm to free herself from his grip. She looked him in the eye now, warning him to back off. He only stepped closer.

"You're lying."

"I'm perfectly fine."

"No. You're not," he hissed through clenched teeth, then turned and smacked his forehead against the cold stone wall. "Damn it, Lily! Tell me the bloody truth! Can't you tell I'm trying to help you?"

She pulled his head back to look at her.

"And can't _you_ tell that I don't want your help?" Why wouldn't he just go away? "Why do you want to help, anyway?"

"Because I care!" he shouted, grabbing her hands and pulling her closer to him.

"As if I would ever believe that," she retorted, and wrenched her hands away from his. "And keep your hands off me, you bloody prat."

"Lily . . ." he pleaded, moving his hand as if to touch her but thinking better of it and letting it fall to his side again.

"Do you really want to know the problem? Do you _really_ want to know? Fine. I'll tell you. Because the problem is _you_." She spat the last word through her teeth. He stood there staring at her, shocked.

"I don't know . . . what I did to make you so . . . so _angry_. But I . . . I-I want you to know that I never meant . . . to hurt you and that I . . . I love you."

It was her turn to be shocked. For a moment she stood there, completely silent and as unmoving as the suits of armor that stood at the end of the corridor. Then she noticed him slowly leaning in, his hazel eyes flickering nervously from her lips to her eyes, then back again. And before he could get too close, she brought her hand up and slapped him across the face. Hard. His glasses tumbled to the floor, but he made no move to retrieve them. Instead, he just stood there with his head slightly turned from the momentum of her hand and his eyes closed.

"You're a bloody idiot, James Potter." With those words she spun on her heels and stomped away, leaving him with hurt feelings, a slightly wounded ego, and a rather impressive red handprint on his cheek.

As soon as she was around the corner and out of sight, she began running — running as fast as she could. She didn't stop until she reached the Forbidden Forest. She wandered around until she found her favorite tree on the other side of the lake and let herself break down.

What. Had. She. Done?

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><p><strong>To be continued...<strong>

**Please tell me what you thought of it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's Chapter 2...**

**Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter.**

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><p>Shadow in the Sunset<p>

Chapter 2

James stood there for a while before he came to his senses and bent to pick up his glasses. He wiped the circular lenses quickly on his robes before shoving them back onto his face. Then he began walking. He didn't know where he was going or why he was even moving but he suddenly found himself at the front doors of Hogwarts. It was a cold November day and he didn't want anyone to see the mark Lily had made on his cheek, so he wrapped his Gryffindor scarf tightly around his face and made his way to the Quidditch pitch. He stumbled to the broom cupboard and pulled out an outdated old Silver Arrow. With the wind whipping violently at his already-windswept hair, he rose into the air. Then he just sat there, not moving at all, just thinking. What was he supposed to do?

He could confront her, tell her that she didn't have the right to slap him. In the scene that flashed continuously through his mind, he hadn't even done anything. What was the most that he had done? He had confessed his love for the beautiful redhead with the fiery temper. He had leaned in slightly to kiss her. It was nothing that deserved a stinging slap.

But if he was completely honest with himself, he had completely earned it. She had six years of dislike and annoyance and persistent date offers going into that slap, fueling it. And he had felt everything.

He had been wondering why in hell he cared so much about what was bothering her when it finally hit him. He loved her. And she completely hated him.

What was he going to do?

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><p>She watched James rise up into the air above the trees. From her tree, which she loved because it came out on the other side of the lake, she could see everything. The castle loomed above everything, casting long, dark shadows. The sun set behind it, outlining the stone walls in brilliant hues of pink and orange. It was beautiful. Picture perfect, as her parents used to say. Students of all ages sat on the grass with their friends, chatting happily and laughing freely. And then there was James, hovering above everything, a shadow in the sunset.<p>

For six years, she had put up with him. His jokes, his pranks, his very voice annoyed her to no end. He definitely deserved to be slapped. But he hadn't even protested after she had hit him.

She couldn't deny that he was handsome. He most definitely was. Every girl in the school wanted to date James Potter. Except her. She hated him. The way she saw him: handsome with an arrogant, self-centered personality. The personality ruined it all.

Suddenly, however, she found herself interested in him. She was jealous of the girls that dated him. She was upset when she stumbled upon them kissing in the common room. She smiled when he smiled, laughed when he laughed. And she wanted to know what had changed.

So she began ignoring him. This newfound interest in him pissed her off. But instead of trying to get to know him better, she didn't talk to him at all. She did feel a bit bad about how she had been acting. She was irritable and snapped at everyone; she couldn't help it.

If she really thought about it, there was only one answer to her feelings. One answer that scared her because she never, ever dreamed that it could happen.

She was in love with James Potter.

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><p><strong>So, what did you think?<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, I just found this story again, and realized that I left it very much unfinished. Not sure how happy I am with it, but I've been up all night and wrote this in the last half hour, so if there's mistakes shoot me, but I don't really care. If there's anything really bad, let me know in the reviews, please. Well, I know y'all don't really read these things so go on and read it, and I'll finally mark this story as complete.**

**I don't own Harry Potter. Honestly. I would have thought you'd have learned by now. :P**

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><p>Shadow in the Sunset<p>

Chapter 3

James had been… avoiding her. More than was usual, at least. And the usual was not at all. But recently, he had been staying away from her, even going so far as to leave the common room when she walked in.

It wasn't as if she minded, she told herself. Not in the least.

But in six years' worth of trying to avoid _him_, rather than the other way around, it came as a rather big shock. But then again, it wasn't as if she minded.

She was, out of character, to say the least. Even Mary had noticed it. Commented on it in the dorm room the other night.

_"By God, Lily, what has gotten into you?" Mary exclaimed, blocking Lily's way down to the common room._

_ "It's nothing. Really." She moved to make her way out the door, only to find it still blocked. "Merlin's beard, Mary. Is it really that big of a deal. Now won't you move? I have quite the Charms essay to start working on." An edge had crept into the redhead's voice._

_ "Lily."_

_ "Mary. What is it?"_

_ "You've been different. Won't you tell me what's going on? I'm your best friend, for heaven's sake. At least I thought I was." Hurt colored her tone._

_ "Of course we're friends. Good heavens, though, Mary. Why won't you let me go? It's Charms, and you know that essay is due tomorrow afternoon."_

_ "Yes, and I also know it was assigned two days ago and you finished it yesterday between your afternoon classes. You've been different, Lily. I don't mean to start anything, but certain people have gone so far as to call you bitchy."_

_ "Bloody hell, Mary." There was a sharp intake of breath at Lily's unusually colorful bad language. "Get out of the way." And the redhead pushed her way down the stairs._

But really. She hadn't been bitchy recently, had she? I mean, she had been… Fine. She hadn't been too happy about James's sudden bout of ignoring her. That was it. She jumped up out of her comfortable armchair in front of the fire and went to go find James Potter, the source of all her troubles.

She stalked through the castle, looking for the annoying imbecile who had been making her so angry recently. She went down to the only place she could imagine him being: the Quidditch pitch. As much as she hated to admit it, he was quite the flyer, and she had enjoyed watching him up in the air recently, the sun silhouetting him against the bright sky.

Sure enough, there he was, flying high above the muddy grass below. She strode right into the middle of the pitch and stood there with her arms crossed, staring up at him and praying to God he noticed her and came down quickly.

He did.

After an uncharacteristic and slightly off-balance landing, James ran over toward her.

"Lily?" His voice was both breathless and breathtaking, leaving her speechless for a moment.

"James." She managed to put a disapproving air into the voice she had just frantically tried to recover. It seemed all her anger had disappeared at the very sound of his voice. His windswept hair and bright hazel eyes were enough to take it away again.

They both sat awkwardly in the newfound silence, neither knowing quite what to say to the other.

James cleared his throat. "You were here to talk to me?" he prompted.

"Yes." She coughed slightly and fought down the blush creeping into her cheeks. "I meant to inform you"— _too formal_, her brain screamed – "… I mean, I wanted to tell you that it's awfully disrespectful to ignore someone, especially since people have a tendency to notice when one particular person cannot stand to be in the common room at the same time as them, even if they are sitting on the other side of the room. And honestly, you should treating others like human beings instead of dogs. We're not here to act and do whatever you choose."

"What?" His face was blank.

"Ah. I knew there was more stupidity in that brain than all those stupid girls realized. Are you really that incompetent, Potter?"

"What happened to James?!" he protested indignantly. "And honestly, I haven't been, well, ignoring you. Well, I have, but probably not for the reasons you think."

"Not for the reasons I think? And exactly why are you ignoring me then, James Potter?" she said icily, tapping her foot impatiently. He muttered something incoherently, blushing slightly. "What was that?"

"I noticed that my, well, _presence_ made you angry, and as cute as you are when you're mad, it really wasn't going well for everyone else. See, Remus and Sirius wouldn't stop pestering me about how upset I make you, and that made me a little upset, and of course Peter doesn't care at all, but we should probably just leave him out of this. Anyway, I was avoiding you because I knew it made you angry, and I'm sure you, unlike some people, are perfectly capable of finishing your schoolwork even while completely distracted by anger, but I didn't want to distract you in the least, especially with exams coming up pretty soon, so I stopped being in the same room with you, thinking it would help, but it clearly did nothing at all so I'm really honestly sorry for all of—" She put her fingers against his mouth to stop his mindless, but obviously nervous ranting. It was amazing that such an idiot could be so cute. _Annoying_, she corrected. Was she going crazy?

"James." He relaxed slightly at the sound of his first name tumbling from her lips. "Honestly. Guess you wouldn't realize that by ignoring me you caused way more distraction than you would of if you had just acted like normal, would you?"

"I know, but you're beautiful, Lily, and I can't really say that I can think completely straight when you're around."

"Cute," she muttered involuntarily. James froze.

"What?" he whispered.

It was Lily's turn to rant. "I know. Oh God, how did I ever get here? I honestly never thought I would ever end up falling in love with the annoying boy who hasn't left me alone since the very first train ride up to this school. Crap. Love. Love? Wait, love? When did I ever fall in love with you?" She glanced up at him. He was shocked. "And I guess I'm ranting a bit myself, but while I'm talking like this, yes. I'm in love with you. I don't know how it happened or when I stopped thinking of you as that annoying, stupid, arrogant idiot, but I guess I… yes. I guess I love—" He cut her off, but not with his fingers.

He leaned forward quickly, firmly grasping her face between his hands, and kissed her, pouring six years' worth of passion and unrequited love into their first kiss.

"You have no idea how long I've waited to hear you say that, Lily Evans. I love you."

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><p><strong>Review please! I know I've been a little snarky; I'm just tired... Make the rest of my day happy though! :)<strong>

**And the story's done! Yay! :)**


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